To Trust a Thief
by Phantom of the Soulless Lover
Summary: Unlike most children, Grell understood that his parents would never come back. He grew up on his own, and he doesn't know who to trust. Will he ever know who he can trust?
1. Chapter 1

"Mommy! Daddy!" he shouted and tried to fight through the building crowd. He had heard gunshots moments before, and feared the worst. Many people's hands struck out to stop him, but he continued to shove his way through. His eyes widened at the sight in front of the diner. The gray concrete was dyed red, and the windows were cracked and bloody. A white gloved hand and a black gloved hand had their fingers intertwined. The man's green eyes were glassy and unblinking. The woman's eyes were closed and it looked like she was in a peaceful slumber. Their striking red hair was messy. Their glasses both lay on the ground, with missing or cracked lenses.

Film reels started to fly out of their chests, assuring the young boy that his parents were in fact... dead. He sunk to his knees as he watched their lives together float into the air. He saw a bright light before the reels disappeared. He heard his friend's father's voice as he read off the mission. Knowing that he couldn't help, and he couldn't go back home on his own, he tugged on the older reaper's pant leg. The reaper looked down and saw the little boy. He picked the young boy up and closed the book. All of the humans that stood around looked for the boy, but they eventually gave up and just watched the police take the husband and wife away.

Grell stared at the broken window one more time, before he hid his face in the man's neck and sobbed. If only he didn't leave to go to the candy store down the street. Maybe the person that killed his parents would've killed him, too. Maybe then he wouldn't have been left alone.

* * *

Unlike most children, Grell understood that his parents would never come back. All of the orphans he was surrounded by knew that. They were Shinigami, after all. They understood that once something was dead, it wasn't going to come back. Grell sat in a small closet in one of the many boy's bedrooms. He clutched his mother's favorite hair flower in one hand, and his father's pocket watch in the other. His mother's locket hung around his neck as he cried. He thought of his mother's lullaby and started to hum it. Before he knew it, the door opened, and he saw three boys staring at him with matching evil grins. He wiped his tears and clutched the items closer to his chest, the dull ticking of the watch calming his nerves a bit.

The boys dragged him out of the closet and took the flower and watch. Grell chased the boys through the house, yelling at them to give him his things back. He knew that if William was here with him, those boys wouldn't have taken the objects in the first place. He knew though, that by now, William was having dinner with his father, and then he'd curl up in his room and read a book that was high above their grade level.

Grell hated being alone, because that's when everyone would pick on him. A few of the older kids saw Grell and held him up by the back of his collar. The two boys from earlier, assuming they were now safe, started to rip up the red flower, and the other started to stomp on the watch. The last boy stayed far away from his friends, and stared at Grell apologetically. He closed his eyes at Grell's wailing and backed away when Grell fell to the floor, due to his thrashing.

Grell charged at the boys, before he was picked up again, by two boys, this time. He continued to shout at the boys to stop, before he heard the loud and booming voice of the headmistress of the building. The boys scrambled to hide the evidence as the woman's heels clicked closer.

"What is going on here?" she asks.

"They stole my mom's flower, and my dad's watch!" Grell growled.

"Did not!" The boys chimed, hiding the evidence in their pockets. "Grell's lying!"

"No he isn't!" a little girl with bright orange hair and Shinigami green eyes runs into the room. She reached into their pockets and showed the headmistress the evidence. The woman sighed and took the two boys away and ordered the older boys to put Grell down. The little girl took Grell's hand and dragged him to the field behind the orphanage. "I'm Cynder. It's nice to meet you."

"Thank you for helping me, Cynder." Grell rubs his sore arms, checking for bruises. "You don't have to be nice to me, anymore."

"Here." she thrust a small, overstuffed doll in his hands. "Her name is Ellie. I want you to have her."

"But she's yours." Grell stares at the small doll with a small green button for an eye, and the other one was a large star. She had perfectly braided purple yarn hair, tied in a bright pink ribbon.

"I can always make another one, besides, she's different, just like you."

"I'm Grell."

"Let's be friends, okay, Grell?"

"O-okay." Grell smiles with a faint blush. He didn't have any friends, other than William. He was glad that he made one that could help him when William wasn't around.

"Best friends forever."

"Forever."


	2. Chapter 2

"Get back here, Sutcliff!" the baker shouted at the running boy. Grell stuck his tongue out at the man before picking up the pace. He heard the man tell his wife to watch the store as he chased after the boy. As Grell ran past a seemingly empty alleyway, he threw a thumbs up, before taking many twists and turns in the maze of the dark and damp alleyways of London. He tucked the package of cookies under his arm as he ran, until he didn't hear the loud thumping of the man's boots behind him. As soon as he sat on the fire escape stairs, he heard the baker's wife shriek and yell at the "dirty rat" to get out.

He opened the package and ate a few cookies as he waited for his sister to show up with the rest of their lunch. He looked out into the street and he haw his friend walking around, trying to think of where the redhead disappeared to. Grell called out to the boy with a smile.

"Grell, you have to go back!" William marched into the alley. "Where's Cynder?"

"She should be here in a bit, besides, it's lunch." Grell offers the boy a cookie.

"You ran out after first period." he sighs and pushes the package away.

"That old bat said that I was being a distraction. All I was doing was doodling in my notebook." Grell sighs. "She should be here in a few minutes, anyway."

"Speak of the devil, and she shall appear." William sighs as he sees Cynder turn the corner and wave a fresh baguette and a block of cheese in the air.

"Hey Spears." she grins. "Have we finally corrupted you?"

"No, I was sent here to bring you two back. We have an important assembly in twenty minutes!" Will's stomach growls at the sight of the food.

"Have you eaten today?" Cynder tears a piece of bread and throws it to Grell, along with the block of cheese.

"Not since breakfast." Will sighs.

"Well, the school's lunch is better than this ever could be." she waves the bread in front of him in a mocking gesture. "Besides, we stole this. You said it yourself, 'If food is stolen, it isn't nearly as good as a paid for meal'."

"At least feed me!" Will snatches off a large chunk of bread and takes the cheese from Grell. Grell chuckled and threw two of three glass bottles that he had filled earlier with some water. He took off the cap and held it to the sky as if it was a glass of whine.

"A toast to William T. Spears breaking his beloved rules!" Grell laughs. The other two rose their bottles in the air before they gulped down half of the bottle.

A stern and booming voice froze them in their place.

"William?" the boy's father called. As Cynder and Grell silently scrambled to hide the food, William stood there, frozen. They tried to pull him forward, but it was as if his feet were cemented to the ground. Grell rolled his eyes and nipped at Will's ear. Will jolted back into reality with furiously red face. Grell and Cynder tugged the boy down countless more alleyways, until William was sure that they were lost. They tugged him into a small bar that was hidden in the maze.

The bartender greeted them warmly as they ducked behind the bar and into a small space under the ice chest. Will was tempted to strangle the redhead, until they heard the door open, and the familiar graceful steps of Will's father.

"Excuse me sir, have you seen three children run by here? One of them is my son, the other is an obnoxious redhead, and the last is a teenage girl who's head is mentally stuck in fourth grade."

"I'm sorry sir, but I haven't seen or heard anything, today." the bartender leans on the counter, immediately putting the kids at ease. "If I do, I'll be sure to notify the police."

"Scotch on the rocks, please." the man sits at the bar. The kids looked to Will, silently asking if his father drank. All Will could do was shrug.

"Coming right up, sir." the bartender flitted around the bar before handing the glass to the man.

It took about ten minutes for the man to finish the drink. The waiting made the kids want to stretch out in the small space.

"If you see the redhead, tell him that I have his doll." the man paid for the drink and left. The kids all popped out of the small space and stretched. Grell frantically searched his pockets for the doll, and noted that it was missing.

"Sin," he looked her in the eye. "Take Will home. We'll all go through the exit that leads to the cleaner shop. I'll come back around and lead Mr. Spears away, so that you can get home safely, okay?"

"But you'll get in trouble, Grell." Will says.

"I can handle it, I'm a big boy." Grell smiles and leads them to the secret door in the paneling behind a booth at the end of the bar.

* * *

"Hey Mister Spears!" Grell runs to the alley, where the man waited. "I stole from the baker again."

"Where's Will?" the man holds the doll up by her purple hair.

"Cynder and I tried to convince him to stay for lunch, but he went back to the school so that he wasn't late for today's assembly." Grell said.

"Well, let's get you back." the man reaches for the boy's shoulder, but Grell hopped back and ran in the opposite direction. "You're really a handful, Sutcliff."

"You should know by now that I won't let you take me back that easily." Grell laughed as he looked back to see the man chasing him. He hoped that he had enough energy to run long enough for Cynder and William to get back to the school without a hitch.

It took about a half hour for the man to finally decide to open a portal and jump in front of Grell. He gripped the boy's wrist and tugged him back to the school. He threw Grell into the auditorium along with his doll. He said that after the assembly, Grell would have to explain what happened to the principal.

He sat in the back, where he saw Cynder waving him over.

"I should kill you, Sutcliff!" William lightly punches him in the arm. "First, you leave me alone with this she devil, and then you leave me to worry about you! On top of all of that, you bit me!"

"You're such a doting wife." Cynder chuckles.

"I'm not his wife!" William huffs and slumps in his chair. "I don't even like him!"

"Not even as a friend?" Grell latches onto the twelve year-old's arm.

"Get off!" he glares at the other boy. "Why'd you bite me, anyway? You know my ears are sensitive!"

"Which is exactly why I did it. I needed to kick your butt in gear!" Grell giggles.

"Invite me to the wedding." Cynder sits down when she hears the vice principal clear her throat into the microphone. William glared at her, but he turned his attention to the front when he heard the woman clear her throat again.

"Today, we have a special guest who would like to talk to you about how your futures will turn out to be as Shinigami. So listen up, and keep your questions until after the speech." she hands the microphone over to a man behind the curtain.

The next thing they knew, the Undertaker walked out from behind the curtain with a grin on his face. William shot back up in his chair and his eyes visibly brightened at the sight of the legendary man in front of them.


End file.
